The secondary visual pathway, from the retina through the superior colliculus and pulvinar nucleus has been linked to spatial attention (Snow et aI., 2009; Arend et aI., 2008) movement planning and motor response to visual stimuli (Wilke et aI....
When observers view a naturalistic (l/f) broadband image, the various spatial components present in the image stimulate many detecting-mechanisms that suppress each other. This suppression is anisotropic, being relatively greater for mechanisms...
The pulvinar is the largest nucleus of the human dorsal thalamus and is affected in a variety of brain disorders, such as schizophrenia. The experiments described in this dissertation elucidate key features of tecto-pulvino-cortical pathways as a...
Speech intelligibility has been found to improve with prior exposure to a reverberant room environment. It is believed that perceptual mechanisms help maintain accurate speech perception under these adverse conditions. Potential factors underlying...
The advent of larger storage spaces, affordable digital capturing devices, and an ever growing online community dedicated to sharing images has created a great need for efficient analysis methods. In fact, analyzing images for the purpose of...
Ligaments--Wounds and injuries; Knee--Wounds and injuries; Women athletes--Wounds and injuries
Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries are among the most common injuries incurred by both recreational and professional athletes. ACL injuries often occur during popular contact sports like basketball, football, volleyball and baseball, and...
For complex classification systems, data is usually gathered from multiple sources of information that have varying degree of reliability. In fact, assuming that the different sources have the same relevance in describing all the data might lead to...
Clement VI, Pope, ca 1291-1352; Popes--Primacy--History; Popes--Temporal power--History
The papacy of Clement VI (1342-1352) was distinguished by
its political activism, its attempt to resurrect the impetus
for crusading, and its efforts to attract the best and
brightest talents to Avignon. The attributes which
characterize his...
High dynamic range imaging involves imaging at a bit depth higher than the typical 8-12 bits offered by standard video equipment. We propose a method of imaging a scene at high dynamic range, 14+ bits, to detect motion correlated with changes in...
The game of Snake has been selected to provide a unique application of the
TD( ) algorithm as proposed by Sutton. A reinforcement learning technique for
producing computer controlled players is documented. Using value function
approximation with...
Previous research has indicated the important role of visual information in the speech perception process. These studies have elucidated the areas of the brain involved in the processing of audiovisual stimuli. The McGurk effect, an audiovisual...
Intimate partner violence--Psychological aspects; Victims of family violence--Rehabilitation; Victims of violent crimes--Mental health; Creative writing--Therapeutic use; Post-traumatic stress disorder--Treatment
Described as important long-term consequences of trauma exposure, disruptions in emotional processes are regarded as central features of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); however, the nature of these posttraumatic emotional disruptions remains...
Neuropsychology; Motor ability; Eye-hand coordination
Two major theoretical models, Direct Mapping and Functional Equivalence, suggest that the observation of action and imagery of action, respectively, involve activation of similar motor related areas. Despite the wealth of evidence that supports...
Public health surveillance; Social networks--Health aspects; Information storage and retrieval systems--Public health
Early information is crucial for policy makers and public health officials responsible for protecting the public from the virulent spread of contagious diseases. Current indicators of the spread of contagious outbreaks lag behind the actual spread...
Three-dimensional imaging in medicine; Lungs--Cancer--Diagnosis
Many lung diseases or injuries can cause biomechanical or material property changes that can alter
lung function. While the mechanical changes associated with the change of the material properties
originate at a regional level, they remain largely...
Gene therapy; Spinal cord--Wounds and injuries; Tissue engineering
The combination of viral mediated gene delivery, tissue engineering, and Schwann cell (SC) transplantation offer a promising strategy to enhance axonal regeneration and functional recovery following spinal cord injury (SCI). The rationale and...
The past decade has brought about major advances in the realms of both
healthcare and biometrics. New technologies and techniques in the field of biometrics
has allowed for the quick and efficient identification of people, while new...
Anxiety in children; Anxiety--Physiological aspects
Anxiety disorders are prevalent in both adult and child populations, and are associated with significant economic and psychosocial costs. There are clearly familial patterns of transmission within the anxiety disorders, and the inherited risk is...
Persons living with chronic pain encounter a host of physical and psychosocial problems resulting in a loss of quality of life and increased disability. The construct of avoidance has been proposed as a mechanism by which these changes in...
Vehicles--Environmental aspects; Traffic flow--Environmental aspects; Motor vehicles--Motors--Exhaust gas
The purpose of this dissertation is to develop a methodology to estimate the temporal Environmental Traffic Capacity (ETC) for urban streets. The approach constitutes the main procedure of ETC calculation and an experimental process of developing...